THE BONE OF CONTENTION HACKLE TICKING
By GEORGE SCOTT, F.Z.S. Hon. Secretary of and Club Judge to the
British Rhode Island Red Club.
Despite the oft-expressed opinions of both English and American authorities to the very positive contrary, there is a whole batch of fanciers who will, because the standard calls for a clear hackle in the male and a ticked hackle in the female, persist in the idea that double mating is essential to success. On the face of things I am free to own that this view would appear to be entirely correct. But let
us adjust our spectacles and look a little deeper. The Rhode Island Red is not, as many people are remarkably fond of asserting, a self-colored fowl. It carries in plain view certain prominent, distinct, and well-defined black markings. Experience, of a most painful kind, has pointed out with no uncertain finger that these black markings are essential to the production and retention of the desirable
rich, deep red body color. Now it is a remarkably nice point, the maintenance of the equilibrium, as it were between the black and the red. Unbalance the thing one way or the other and blank ruin stares you in the face. Err on the side of too much black and nature kicks out an ugly foot and gives you enough smutty, peppered, and lace-hackled birds to last a life-time ; eliminate just a little too much black in your matings and you will blush every time you are called upon to explain to your visitors that you don't really keep buff Rocks!
The black ticking in the female's hackle to the degree called for in the standard is, in my opinion (which opinion, by the way, is held by the most competent American authorities), a valuable and almost essential point in the production of rich, dark, even red surface color. But to include ticking in the male hackle would be to overdo the whole thing. Such a mating, with ticked hackles on both sides, would completely upset the balance and the resultant progeny would be as sorry a lot of Reds as ever sickened mortal eyes. The alternative put forward by the reformers is to have clear hackles in both
sexes. And just as surely as the ticked hackled male would cause a surfeit of black in the mating, spelling irretrievable ruin, so. would the clear hackled female, by upsetting the balance in the other direction, slowly but surely produce a race of buffs. The whole truth of the matter is that the adoption of ticked hackles in both sexes or plain hackles, it matters not one jot which, would, if the standard in its ether points were retained, involve as an absolute necessity double-mating with all its tiresome bother. The standard was framed by American fanciers after much experience with the breed. And at no time since its compilation have responsible and competent Red authorities,either in the United States or England, seen fit to change it in any solitary detail. As a result of much experimenting and the widest observation, it has been proved beyond doubt and beyond question that the present standard description of hackles is the best, most attractive, and only practical one. The opinions
of novices and outsiders notwithstanding, it is as a matter of accurate truth the only way in which it is possible to breed standard exhibition specimens without double mating.
As a breeder we try to go by this;
When Breeding
Never use a male with;
black striping in the hackle
all-black undercolour
a light hackle
a buff breast
(in the case of a cockerel) white in
tail, wings, or hackle.
Never use a female with;
white in any section
all-black undercolour
a mottled breast
a heavily-striped hackle.
1 An Ideal Mating.
A male bird, youngster, or veteran, it matters not one jot which, fit to get into the money at the Club Show itself, mated with long-bodied, low-tailed females of rich dark red throughout; the undercolor of which, if it errs at all, must be inclined to smuttiness, carrying black in tail, strong wing markings, and hackle ticking to the extent called for in the standard and not one atom more.
The neck hackle of every solitary one of these females must be intensely dark red, preferably even darker than the rest of the plumage. Invariably, if diligent search will unearth it, a yearling hen of the quality described is infinitely to be preferred to a pullet. Knowledge of each bird's ancestry I am taking for granted, and that male and female both are, wherever possible, of the same strain.
2. A Mating Designed to Improve the Color of Cockerels in a Strain where they are inclined to be too Light a Shade of Red.
Select the best, most even and soundest of these inferior cockerels, paying particular attention to the soundness of his undercolor. With him mate hens or pullets, dark even red,
with smut in otherwise red undercolour, dark red hackles (preferably showing a little smut at base of hackle) that are darker even than the rest of the plumage, and good black tails.
Chris
By GEORGE SCOTT, F.Z.S. Hon. Secretary of and Club Judge to the
British Rhode Island Red Club.
Despite the oft-expressed opinions of both English and American authorities to the very positive contrary, there is a whole batch of fanciers who will, because the standard calls for a clear hackle in the male and a ticked hackle in the female, persist in the idea that double mating is essential to success. On the face of things I am free to own that this view would appear to be entirely correct. But let
us adjust our spectacles and look a little deeper. The Rhode Island Red is not, as many people are remarkably fond of asserting, a self-colored fowl. It carries in plain view certain prominent, distinct, and well-defined black markings. Experience, of a most painful kind, has pointed out with no uncertain finger that these black markings are essential to the production and retention of the desirable
rich, deep red body color. Now it is a remarkably nice point, the maintenance of the equilibrium, as it were between the black and the red. Unbalance the thing one way or the other and blank ruin stares you in the face. Err on the side of too much black and nature kicks out an ugly foot and gives you enough smutty, peppered, and lace-hackled birds to last a life-time ; eliminate just a little too much black in your matings and you will blush every time you are called upon to explain to your visitors that you don't really keep buff Rocks!
The black ticking in the female's hackle to the degree called for in the standard is, in my opinion (which opinion, by the way, is held by the most competent American authorities), a valuable and almost essential point in the production of rich, dark, even red surface color. But to include ticking in the male hackle would be to overdo the whole thing. Such a mating, with ticked hackles on both sides, would completely upset the balance and the resultant progeny would be as sorry a lot of Reds as ever sickened mortal eyes. The alternative put forward by the reformers is to have clear hackles in both
sexes. And just as surely as the ticked hackled male would cause a surfeit of black in the mating, spelling irretrievable ruin, so. would the clear hackled female, by upsetting the balance in the other direction, slowly but surely produce a race of buffs. The whole truth of the matter is that the adoption of ticked hackles in both sexes or plain hackles, it matters not one jot which, would, if the standard in its ether points were retained, involve as an absolute necessity double-mating with all its tiresome bother. The standard was framed by American fanciers after much experience with the breed. And at no time since its compilation have responsible and competent Red authorities,either in the United States or England, seen fit to change it in any solitary detail. As a result of much experimenting and the widest observation, it has been proved beyond doubt and beyond question that the present standard description of hackles is the best, most attractive, and only practical one. The opinions
of novices and outsiders notwithstanding, it is as a matter of accurate truth the only way in which it is possible to breed standard exhibition specimens without double mating.
As a breeder we try to go by this;
When Breeding
Never use a male with;
black striping in the hackle
all-black undercolour
a light hackle
a buff breast
(in the case of a cockerel) white in
tail, wings, or hackle.
Never use a female with;
white in any section
all-black undercolour
a mottled breast
a heavily-striped hackle.
1 An Ideal Mating.
A male bird, youngster, or veteran, it matters not one jot which, fit to get into the money at the Club Show itself, mated with long-bodied, low-tailed females of rich dark red throughout; the undercolor of which, if it errs at all, must be inclined to smuttiness, carrying black in tail, strong wing markings, and hackle ticking to the extent called for in the standard and not one atom more.
The neck hackle of every solitary one of these females must be intensely dark red, preferably even darker than the rest of the plumage. Invariably, if diligent search will unearth it, a yearling hen of the quality described is infinitely to be preferred to a pullet. Knowledge of each bird's ancestry I am taking for granted, and that male and female both are, wherever possible, of the same strain.
2. A Mating Designed to Improve the Color of Cockerels in a Strain where they are inclined to be too Light a Shade of Red.
Select the best, most even and soundest of these inferior cockerels, paying particular attention to the soundness of his undercolor. With him mate hens or pullets, dark even red,
with smut in otherwise red undercolour, dark red hackles (preferably showing a little smut at base of hackle) that are darker even than the rest of the plumage, and good black tails.
Chris
